


of nightmares

by cryptic_dragon



Series: Destiny Week [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Destiny Week, Gen, Random Snippets, i'll be so glad when the Taken are done with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 01:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11956758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptic_dragon/pseuds/cryptic_dragon
Summary: for Destiny Week prompt 1: Ghosts





	of nightmares

 

    His Guardian awoke abruptly, snapping him out of a light doze with a shrill screech of terror. He was at her side in an instant, but she hastily recoiled, stammering, optics wide with uncharacteristic fear. "G-get out of that thing _right now!_ "  
    "What on earth are you talking about?" His rear pins twirled in agitation. "You _put_ me in here last night yourself, you thought it was pretty!"  
    "P-please! The Crimson Shell, use that one!" she cried, echoes of the nightmare that had interrupted her recharge cycle still scraping jagged claws across the edges of his mind.  
    Hastily did the little Ghost abandon his fancy new Consumed Shell for the Crimson Shell he'd inhabited before, it clattered to the ground uselessly behind him as he immediately initiated the transfer. "Zu, what's gotten into you?" he asked when the transfer had completed itself. Thankfully, swapping shells was merely a cosmetic function and did not take long at all.  
    He had almost moved to pick up the abandoned shell, but De Zu-7 reached out with shaking hands and he settled himself into them instead, keeping very still as she drew him close to her chest in a hug. Her spiking vitals gradually dropped from redline levels into a more bearable percentage, and Sunny pondered whether other Ghosts also received physical gestures of affection from their Guardians or if other Guardians also benefited from their Ghosts offering themselves up as comfort items.  
    Together they sat in silence for a while as her trembling movements calmed, finally stilled. He neither disappeared from her grasp nor tried to move away. _Do you want to talk about it?_ he asked quietly.  
    A pause, then a slight nod. "Taken," she murmured finally, holding him out so that she could see him in the glittering red-pink shell he now wore. She ran her thumbs over his pins as if to make sure he was actually there. "I dreamed you had been Taken, and then I was Taken too, and then everyone I met on the way to the Tower of Deep Stone, I Took as well. Commanding an entire army of Taken, we stormed the Tower and killed everything, everyone. We were a perfect wave of Darkness and we sculpted the entire Crypt into a horrific new shape, you and I. I never—" her vocal processors warbled embarrassingly, and she paused to clear their buffers manually. "I-it's been a long time since I've had such a vivid dream."  
    "If it makes you feel any better, it's impossible for Oryx to Take either of us. His power cannot Take that which is filled with the Light of the Traveler." He conveniently left out the part about Oryx not being able to Take that which had already died, as it would serve no purpose other than to possibly upset her even more. Instead, he finally wriggled out of her grasp and moved to the window to look out upon the pale curve of the Traveler, to be strong for her when she needed him most.  
    "I know, I know, I just... p-please don't wear that shell anymore."  
    "I won't."  
    She stared at him for a long moment before nodding, finally able to relax. Her legs swung out over the edge of the bed, then she leaned down and took up the shell they had fought so hard to obtain from the Challenge of Elders. He watched as she turned it over in her hands, then shuddered abruptly and set it in a box high up on a decorative shelf located right next to a picture of them at the beach and a fine porcelain doll she'd found in an old abandoned village. "We'll just leave it here in our room, a trophy as opposed to a wearable item."  
    "Or a _visible_ item," he added dryly. "But, it _could_ be infused into another of my shells instead, you know? If you really don't like it, I mean. The parts would interface with and lend strength to—"  
    "No!"  
    He felt her fear rising again and hastened to drop himself back into her hands and be drawn in for another comforting hug. "All right, then a trophy it shall be," the little Ghost acquiesced smoothly, listening to the gentle whirr of her internal fans as the night continued onward.


End file.
